SILKSCREENS
SILKSCREENS
by Katy Martin
1978, digital transfer (from super-8mm film), 20 minutes
with sound by Richard Teitelbaum
— Newly remastered in 2019, as a digital transfer from the super-8mm film original, by BB Optics and Katy Martin
— Remastered in 2015, to 16-mm film from the super-8mm film original, by Anthology Film Archives
with support from The National Film Preservation Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
SILKSCREENS follows the choreography of printmakers at work, pulling the edition of Johns' print, THE DUTCH WIVES. It was filmed at Simca Print Artists in New York. I got the notion of repetitive labor as a form of dance from the French painter, Edgar Degas. No doubt, I was also influenced by minimalism with its impetus to integrate normal, workaday movements into fine art. For the sound track, I worked with the musician, Richard Teitelbaum (who in turn had worked with John Cage). We used ambient sounds from the print shop and the street outside to reflect the kind of hearing that you experience as you work, when sounds float in and out of consciousness.
“A mesmerizing piece of choreography and motion, SILKSCREENS follows the printmakers at work pulling the edition of Jasper Johns' THE DUTCH WIVES. Featuring exquisite sound by electronic music pioneer, Richard Teitelbaum, SILKSCREENS is an absorbing document of artisans in process and the space they inhabit.” — Anthology Film Archives, program notes